Change brain drain to brain gain: Government

1000 students to be offered attractive fellowships and direct admission to PhD programmes in the IITs and IISc, to encourage indigenous research addressing national priorities.

The Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) scheme is expected to improve the quality of research by attracting the best talent from across the country.Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar, says, “The scheme will go a long way in tapping the talent pool of the country for carrying out research indigenously, in cutting edge science and technology domains.”

“The research under the Scheme will address our national priorities on the one hand and shortage of quality faculty in the premier educational institutions of the country, on the other. This initiative of the Government will convert brain drain to brain gain,” he adds.

As per this initiative, around 1,000 of the best students who have completed or are in the final year of BTech or Integrated MTech or MSc in science and technology streams from IISc, IITs, NITs, IISERs and IIITs, under this scheme, will be offered direct admission to the PhD programmes in the IITs/IISc.

The selected students will be offered a fellowship of Rs 70,000 per month for the first two years, Rs.75,000 per month for the third year, and Rs.80, 000 per month in the four and fifth years. In addition, a research grant of rupees two lakh will be provided to each of the Fellows for a period of five years to enable them to participate in international research conferences and present research papers. A maximum of 3,000 Fellows will be selected in a three-year period beginning 2018–19.